CSU not letting up as season winds down

McElwain: No shortcuts for Rams as they focus on strong finish.

Nov. 10, 2012

CSU football coach Jim McElwain will lead his team onto the field at Hughes Stadium again today for a home game against UNLV. Despite their 2-7 record, the Rams still have a lot to play for in their final three games, the first-year coach said. / Rich Abrahamson/The Coloradoan

Written by

Keys to the game1. Can the Rams continue to build on their recent success in the running game, with 100-yard rushers in each of the past two games after having none in the first seven games? 2. Can a CSU defense that is giving up an average of 213.9 rushing yards a game keep UNLV running backs Tim Cornett and Bradley Randle under control? 3. Will CSU quarterback Conner Smith be able to pick up where he left off after throwing for 326 yards and two touchdowns in his second start last weekend at Wyoming?

CSU live blogs

Want to get involved? Go to Coloradoan.com, click on the live blog and follow along during each CSU football game. Interact with CSU football reporters Kelly Lyell and Matt Stephens before, during and after every CSU football game. Some of the best comments will appear in Sunday’s newspaper.

CSU RamPage

To see CSU football stories, videos and photo galleries, check out the Coloradoan’s new RamPage at Coloradoan.com/CSUfootball.

More

ADVERTISEMENT

There’s no bowl game to play for, no chance of a winning record and even the usual rivalry game at the end of the season already has been played.

So what is left for the CSU football team to play for in its final three games?

It’s a question first-year coach Jim McElwain and his players hear often. And it really rubs them the wrong way.

“I get those questions, too,” McElwain said after a practice earlier this week. “ ‘Hey, how come you don’t play the young guys for next year?’ You know what? This year’s not over … you don’t throw guys out in the street.”

McElwain’s playing a lot of young guys, anyway, simply out of necessity. Only six seniors — three on offense and three on defense — are expected to start for the Rams (2-7, 1-4 Mountain West Conference) in a home game 5 p.m. today against UNLV (2-8, 2-3). They’ve also got six juniors in the starting lineup, along with five sophomores and five freshmen, including quarterback Conner Smith, running back Donnell Alexander and linebacker Cory James, the team leader in sacks.

So there are plenty of young players gaining valuable experience this year that should make them better players down the road. But with one-quarter of the season still to play, McElwain and his players aren’t about to give up hope of picking up a few more wins, maybe even enough to improve upon the 3-9 records of the past three seasons that led to the firing of former coach Steve Fairchild.

“We’ve got to finish strong,” said running back Chris Nwoke, a junior and the team’s leading rusher with 336 yards on 81 carries. “That’ll be a confidence factor for us, knowing that we just didn’t give up. Going out and showing our heart, showing our passion, going out there and giving our all and making a foundation for next year.”

That foundation is what McElwain is focused on. Sure, he said, he wants to win every game and the losses this season have been hard to swallow. But he’s also convinced the Rams are laying the groundwork for future success in the way they carry themselves, behave, relate to one another and the community at-large, and go about their daily business of trying to become better football players.

(Page 2 of 2)

As long as they stay the course, the wins will come soon enough, McElwain believes.

The team he’s playing Saturday is three years into a similar process under a coach, Bobby Hauck, he has known since their fathers coached against one another while they were growing up in Montana.

The Rebels, who are coming off a 35-7 win over New Mexico, won just two games in each of Hauck’s first two seasons. Like CSU, the Rebels are running out of chances to improve upon that mark with just three games remaining.

“I feel like we’ve got a really good, dedicated team, people who really want to go out there and get better,” said running back Tim Cornett, a junior who has run for 1,042 yards and seven touchdowns this year. “That was questionable in the past.”

That’s all part of building a program the right way, McElwain said, noting that “shortcuts come back and bite you in the end.”

And one of those shortcuts would be to abandon the seniors and maybe even some of the juniors at this point of the season to get more game experience for the younger players. That doesn’t fit the philosophy of what he’s trying to do.

In fact, it would be direct contradiction to his demand that players finish everything they do. He wants them to play through the whistle on every repetition in practice, on every play, in every game — regardless of the score.

“You play the game to win,” junior tackle Jared Biard said. “You don’t ever play the game to lose. — We want to win every week, and that’s what we’re doing. We’re trying to put in the work every day, and we want to get these last three wins.”